China Scene: West

Well-intentioned boy becomes prodigal son

A 17-year-old student from Lianshan village, Sichuan province, was brought home by police after he ran away two years ago to spare his parents from compensating a classmate whose MP4 player he broke in April 2006.

However, rather than merely paying the 300 yuan the students's classmate asked for, his parents ended up spending some 130,000 yuan ($19,000) looking for their missing son.